Chisbury

Chisbury
Chisbury
	St. Martin's Chapel
	Chisbury Location within Wiltshire
OS grid reference	SU277663
Civil parish	Little Bedwyn;
Unitary authority	Wiltshire;
Ceremonial county	Wiltshire;
Region	South West;
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Marlborough
Postcode district	SN8
Dialling code	01672
Police	Wiltshire
Fire	Dorset and Wiltshire
Ambulance	South Western
UK Parliament	East Wiltshire;
	List of places UK England Wiltshire 51°23′42″N 1°36′11″W / 51.395°N 1.603°W

Chisbury is a hamlet and prehistoric hill fort in the civil parish of Little Bedwyn in Wiltshire, England. Chisbury is about 4 miles (6 km) west of Hungerford and about 6 miles (10 km) south-east of Marlborough.

History

At 176 metres (577 ft) above sea level, Chisbury hillfort is the highest point in Little Bedwyn parish^[1] and encloses an area of about 14 acres (5.7 ha).^[2] Palaeolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age artefacts have been found in the area, but the hillfort was most probably built in the late Iron Age in the 1st century AD.^[1] There may be a link with the 7th-century West Saxon nobleman Cissa.^[3] The hillfort was re-used in the Anglo-Saxon times as a burh, cited as Cyssanbyrig in the Burghal Hidage document which lists the fortifications of Wessex in the later part of the 9th century, although Julian Orbach cautions that this may be a misreading for Tisbury.^[4]

St. Martin's chapel, on the eastern edge of the hillfort, seems to have been built in the early part of the 13th century.^[1] After the middle of the 16th century the building lapsed from use for worship and was turned into a barn.^[1] It was re-roofed in the 19th century but in 1998 its condition was semi-ruinous.^[1] The hillfort and chapel were designated as a scheduled ancient monument in 1925.^[5]

Chisbury Manor farmhouse, also within the hillfort site, is a two-storey brick building from the mid 18th century.^[6]

Knowle Farm, about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) northwest of Chisbury, has a 14th-century chapel^[1] which is now an outbuilding of the farmhouse.^[1] A blocked ogee-headed north window and the surround of the east window are the only surviving features.^[7] The farmhouse is a brick-built Georgian house of five bays dated 1735.^[7]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Crowley, 1999, pages 50-69
^ Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 174
^ "Cissa 1 (Male)". Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England. King's College London. Retrieved 13 October 2023.
^ Orbach, Julian; Pevsner, Nikolaus; Cherry, Bridget (2021). Wiltshire. The Buildings Of England. New Haven, US and London: Yale University Press. p. 228. ISBN 978-0-300-25120-3. OCLC 1201298091.
^ Historic England. "Chisbury Camp and St Martin's Chapel (1013400)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
^ Historic England. "Chisbury Manor Farmhouse (1184320)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
^ ^a ^b Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 463

Sources and further reading

Aston, Michael; Bond, James (1976). The Landscape of Towns. Archaeology in the Field Series. London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd. pp. 59, 60. ISBN 0-460-04194-0.
Baggs, A P; Freeman, J; Smith, C; Stevenson, J H; Williamson, E (1999). Crowley, D.A. (ed.). "Victoria County History: Wiltshire: Vol 16 pp50-69 – Little Bedwyn". British History Online. University of London. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
Pevsner, Nikolaus; Cherry, Bridget (revision) (1975) [1963]. Wiltshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 174–175, 463. ISBN 0140710264.